Biting the hand of Project Fear

Timing is everything

OK, we’ve gone over the well worn establishment strategy of ‘Don’t look over here‘, in a post already. For bods of an independent tendency, its what the past three weeks have been all about after all. Does anyone seriously think that GERSmageddon and the Independence Day Massacre Pt.2, (the return of Project Fear), were really accidental in their build up and timing?

I mean, having a dig at the Scottish Government is rarely far from the top of any ‘to do’ list in meeja land, but the past three weeks have seen the usual suspects go into not just SNP BAD overdrive, but independence bad frenzy. The politicos and media were reaching past the Scottish Government and going straight to the source of political change in Scotland… the public. Not something they do lightly these days, or very often.

Now don’t look so shocked and stop laughing at the back. March 24th, 2016 was always, but always going to be a bit nervous for the poor dears. Political parties and media alike are fully aware that the ‘better togetherness’ they sold to the Scottish electorate hasn’t exactly been all it was cracked up to be in the past eighteen months. Question is, what to do about a date that was always going to strike an emotional chord with a still grumpy electorate in Scotland in the run up to an Osborne budget, followed by Scottish elections and an EU referendum? The excellent Business for Scotland web site has a rather damning article on the past eighteen months record HERE and it is well worth the read. Enough to say that bods in some quarters were motivated.

Anyroads, clearly policy wonks and meeja types had a light bulb moment. The approach appears to have been, convince the Scottish electorate that the past eighteen months of Westminster’s ‘RESPECT AGENDA’, VOWS DELIVERED, financial hardship and austerity ideology washing over their country, isn’t anywhere near as distressing as it would have been under independence.

Master stroke! Back of the net! CHA CHING!

Cue headlines of fiscal carnage which Scots couldn’t possibly have coped with on their own. I mean, that is how it comes across. Whether that’s exactly how the media intend these dire warnings to come across is purely a matter for conjecture of course, but it’s depressingly hard to read it any other way. Seems to me that every other country in the world handles their own economy in good times and bad. Its kinda what grown up, responsible countries and their governments are expected to do. It’s pretty much accepted common practice that governments of independent countries, having access to all relevant economic levers, have the ability to take action in the best interests of their electorate as and when required. Common practice that is, except for viewers in….

Me? I have confidence that Scotland has all the resources and the talent to manage our economy and voted accordingly in 2014. Good times or bad, you look to the government you vote for to steer you through. They do good? They get to keep their jobs. They do badly? Well, that’s why its called a democracy, but with independence you’d get the government you voted for with their full attention firmly focussed on your particular needs. That’s all beside the point though (shrugs).

Right now Scotland is NOT independent, the levers of the economy belong to the government of the UK (where they’ve been for quite some time now) and any hypothetical financial doomsday scenario projected for an independent Scotland is just that… hypothetical. I have no idea what measures an independent Scottish government would have taken over the past eighteen months, for the simple reason that whole independence thing DIDN’T HAPPEN.

Ayup, apparently others convinced enough of the voting public that Scots shouldn’t have to steward their own economy. No, they could leave all that grown up stuff to a system and folk who know better and who would look after them, honest. The same bods (they’re interchangeable) as it happens, whose stewardship of the economy ran up a £1.6tr debt for instance? Maybe just me, but if you’re looking for governments in trouble who struggle to handle an economy, balance the books n’ such, then don’t you think the meeja may be looking in the wrong place by this point?

It seems to me that if a chancellor hadn’t met self imposed deficit reduction targets, or forecast (cough) economic growth targets, I’d be more inclined to be asking pointed questions of that government and its economic strategy. That’s the criteria for a deluge of negative meeja attention about your ability to cope, right? Just to be clear, £1.6tr (and not falling) is a big number isn’t it? Shouldn’t that really big number be considered one of them BLACK HOLE thingies? And just think, no hypothetical speculation required. RESULT!

Or, is it the case that where Scottish politics and its electorate are concerned, this is the very definition of ‘DON’T LOOK OVER HERE’ and why timing, in our own recent experience, is everything?

Don’t mention the debt. I did, but I think I got away with it.
Still to figure out how our perfidious scribes and broadcasters sleep o’ night, given the absolute tripe and treachery that they’ve churned out over the past fortnight.
It is not ‘only politics’.
They have not printed enough money ,ever, to entice me to betray Scotland like this.

We get ticked off for labelling folks, ‘traitors’, ‘quislings’, Fifth Columnists’.
Given the distortion, lies, and gloating over the litany of lies churned out by the MSM surrounding 24th March, I can think of no other way to describe this modern day parcel of rogues in the nation.

You’re in good company, Alex. I too have been barred from one site , and ‘moderated out’ of the old HS site many a time.
No more Mr Nice Guy. From now on in, I call a spade, a shovel.
The £15 billion black hole sophistry did it for me. We are controlled from London, endov.

I value my sanity, Jack, so I don’t read, watch or listen to nasty media. Nor do I argue with yoons. When distributing leaflets I just present the facts and if someone is too heavily brain-washed to listen I move on…….otherwise either my head or heart would most definitely suffer!

Jan, encouragingly, most of the folk with whom I have social intercourse (I can say that, can’t I?) voted YES..a broad mix of Scots citizens from all walks of life, hearteningly.
There are some dyed in the wool No-ers in our watering hole; a telling sheep metaphor, methinks.

I skim through the Unionist propaganda now. The key sentence in each paragraph is enough. ‘Warns’, ‘under fire’, ‘black hole’ and the rest of the SNP BAD Bingo permeates the press and broadcasts. This SNP MAD piece of misrepresentation is merely a twist on the tiresome SNP BAD mantra.
Roll on May, the next staging post on the road to self determination.

That’s exactly the correct tactic, Jan. You quote another phrase I have been criticised for using, “brainwashed”. As the Scottish people have been subjected to a barrage of propaganda for hundreds of years, I’m afraid some of it has been successful in embedding itself in the minds of at least some of the electorate.
As both of us know from speaking to people on the doorstep, there are some who will never change, and it’s a waste of breath trying. But again as you will know, people are changing their opinions, especially after the referendum campaign, and more and more are coming around to our way of thinking. So, keep going, and we’ll get not only an S.N.P, Scottish Government, and in hopefully as short a time as possible, independence.

“I have confidence that Scotland has all the resources and the talent to manage our economy”

And that is the difference between an independence supporter and a unionist. Like you I have no doubt that we could run our own affairs better than London. We need to infect the doubters with our confidence and overcome their fear of change.

Pity you aren’t going to make it along to the WIngs get together tonight, that’s any number of pints I’m due you Sam 😉

“Right now Scotland is NOT independent, the levers of the economy belong to the government of the UK (where they’ve been for quite some time now) and any hypothetical financial doomsday scenario projected for an independent Scotland is just that… hypothetical. I have no idea what measures an independent Scottish government would have taken over the past eighteen months, for the simple reason that whole independence thing DIDN’T HAPPEN.”

Exactly, Sam, but is something that UKOKians don’t really understand, in their exultation that Scotland would have been a basket case. I don’t have many such acquaintances but have noticed that they are often confounded by the counter-argument often made here and on Wings that if Scotland’s in such a dreadful state, what does it say about a Union which creates such economic conditions in an supposedly equal partner?

They also seem to forget about the almost unimaginable size of the debt presided over presently by the Great Gideon, Prince of Dorkness.

Dae ye want tae gang back tae the days in the street
Whaur the weans wir aye hungry an ran in bare feet
Whaur yer Granny when auld in this land o’ the brave
Is described as a pauper as she’s laid in her grave

Is this whit ye want?

Dae ye want when yer sick, tae choose whit tae buy
Is it pills for yer pain or milk fae the kye
Oor free education well that will be lost
And the brightest will suffer because o’ the cost

Is this whit ye want?

Dae ye want when the nukes sail aff doon the Clyde
Tae ken if they’re fired there’s nae place tae hide
If yer on top o’ the Ben or doon at the coast
We’ll be in it the gither like a slice o’ burnt toast

Is this whit ye want?

The answer is simple, the answer is clear
Jist throw off the cringe and lose a’ the fear
So pu’ back yer shooders an rowe up yer sleeves
Get oan tae yer feet get up off yer knees
We’re better than that we a’ ken it’s true
That’s no whit a want, how about you?

While I agree with much of the argument about why the pro Union media have splashed on SBPbaad and antiIndependence scare stories during the week in which an independent Scotland might have come into being, I think there is another very powerful reason which relates to preservation of the Conservative party and its new Labour acolytes. Mr Osborne’s budget was crass. He was of course continuing the process of transferring wealth and power from the majority of us to ‘his people’. However, it was so arrogant, particularly with regard to PIP, that many Tories and other media people jibbed. I make no comment on the motives of Mr Duncan Smith, but his resignation signalled split and warfare within the Conservative Party in advance of Europe. Mr Osborne also privatised England’s school system. That is a truly transformative action, transformative in weakening the power of the state and elected local government.
There was the sugar tax, which garnered headlines. Then there was the coordinated ‘Corbyn misses an open goal’ narrative because he focussed on the PIP/ higher rate tax cuts scandal rather than mentioning Mr IDS’s resignation. It was the Channel 4 news headline. And, shamefully, Mr Ian McWhirter amplified it in the increasingly right wing Herald. There was the leaked list of who is for or against Mr Corbyn. And, opinion polling showed Labour edging ahead in the UK and Mr Cobyn’s personal ratings ahead of those of the PM, the Chancellor and Mr Farron. All these plus the antiScottish blah, diverted attention. Unfortunately, the dreadful events in Brussels also provided Mr Osborne with cover.

Here in Scotland, we have, indeed shaken the UK and, to some extent wider politics. The genuine public interest and debate that the referendum generated has not waned. Pro independence people are looking with even greater depth at the analysis of power and are, through things like the Commonweal, producing alternative analyses and constructive proposals. When will more of the people of England get roused in sufficient numbers to start asking questions and ignoring UKIP?

Alasdair, while I agree with your summary of events of the last week or so, I really don’t care what they get up to Down There. I have many relatives, ex colleagues and dear friends who live in England. They are big enough and ugly enough to look after themselves and attempt to elect a Government of their choosing.
There is no UK Parliament now. 56 Scottish MP’ s are marginalised by 590 Unionist MP’s at every turn.
Labour joined with Tories and Lib Dems to vote down 120 SNP amendments to the Scotland Bill, with no sense of irony or guilt.
It was ever thus.
Therefore I care not that there are internecine battles raging Down There. They all deserve each other.
I am already ‘of independent mind’. Self determination is now a matter of ‘when’, not ‘if’.

A great piece of poetry that reminds me of listening to Jackie Kay, the new Makar, on the radio. I know nothing of her politics but she was an ambassador for Scotland and I am optimistic that she will be for the next five years.

A lot of good comments. In particular I agree with Jack Collatin re what the rUK electorate choose to do. Scotland does not exist for them in any meaningful sense – and that includes friendly Jeremy and his chums.

In fact it is particularly friendly Jeremy and his chums who concern me. It is one of my biggest concerns that there is the potential for Jeremy to convince Scottish saps that a return to ‘old labour’ is the key to the future. There are plenty on the left who are busy laying the ground to to make exactly this happen. The only answer to a better future for Scotland’s children is independence. The ‘left’ have sold out Scotland more than once and my perspective on Jeremy and his party is that I wish them abject failure.

The incompetent shambles in rUK is a rare ray of sunshine for Scotland, the poor and the vulnerable who are suffering as a result of right wing red/blue tory actions. Imagine just how bad it would be should they ever become competent. As I recall, incompetence was a major factor in the demise of the Soviet Union – the timing of which nobody anticipated.

They didn’t expect it to be so close. They didn’t expect to have to promise the vow to get even that result. They genuinely believed support for the union was higher. They thought they had 80/20. Now they have to consider that a considerable proportion of the Scots electorate don’t want the Union. Don’t want to be British. Don’t think we have the best of both worlds, or that the UK is indeed OK. They have to consider that this solid chunk of votes no longer trust the sub branch parties of Britain. They have to consider that this solid chunk of voters can prevent sub branch parties of Britain from ever having a say in Scotland.

Yet they have no idea how to reconcile with us. So they have no other option but to keep doing what cost them so dear. They keep on attacking us. Keep trying to prove that we can’t afford to be British let alone Independent. It is an irrational escalation of commitment. They are clearly of the opinion that it hasn’t worked yet, because they didn’t do enough of it in the first place. When it doesn’t work again, they will once again start calling us cultists and mindless drones. The columnists will play the victim card when they are ridiculed for their SNP=BAD diet of articles that achieved so little the last time they tried it. They’ll do it all over and over again and the result will be the same…again.

It was really down to them to prove being Scottish was completely interchangeable with being British. That it was one and the same thing. They decided instead to let Scottish labour define it as a giro cheque Scotland cashes in. They got the Tories to pay for it, and then let Osborne declare that Scotland contributed nothing to the success of the UK. Did they really think that quaffing that poison was going to endear them to us? This is the mistake they made. This is were they lost Scotland. All the GERS reports and graphs and negativity in the whole of the UK is not going to win it back for them.